Medina County partners with Portage and Columbiana counties to recruit treatment foster homes

MEDINA — Medina County, along with Columbiana and Portage counties, will recruit and support treatment foster homes as part of a new model focused on connecting foster children with complex needs to foster families. Medina County Job and Family Services Director Debbie Kiley said the Ohio Department of Children and Youth has recently provided child protective agencies throughout the state the opportunity to support a treatment foster home model. Kiley said counties throughout the state have seen an increase in children with high needs. "Those needs can be met at a home if only those homes are properly supported but also properly educated about how are you dealing with these children with higher needs so that we don't have to put them in an institution or in a group home," Kiley said. Recently, Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Children and Youth Director Kara B. Wente announced more than $2 million in funding to expand the treatment foster home model. The pilot program will replicate and expand on the Northwest Treatment Foster Care Partnership, which is a collaboration between Sandusky, Seneca, Ottawa and Wyandot counties' public children services agencies, a news release from DeWine read. "The pilot program will provide support for families, including 24/7 on-call casework and crisis counseling, along with specialized training so that children with complex behavioral needs can stay in a home environment," the release reads. Similar to the Northwest Treatment Foster Care Partnership, the program will use a regional approach to allow the agencies to use their combined resources to maximize the program's effectiveness. Kiley said Medina, Portage and Columbiana counties will work together for recruitment efforts in creating a network of treatment foster home providers. While the state funding will go to each county, Kiley said Portage County will be the lead agency out of the three counties. "The idea is that these three counties will have this shared network of treatment foster home providers, but have one worker who is dedicated to all of those homes," she said. "That worker will be 24/7 on call, provide support services as well as counseling services and crisis response and it might not be that person that provides the crisis response, but there will be the service coordinator to make that happen for those families." Kiley said Portage County will have that person on their staff, while all three counties work on recruitment efforts. The money set aside that is not going toward staffing will go toward services and support, she said. The pilot program will result in nine new regional partnerships throughout the state and will have 30 new public children services agencies participating, the news release states. Contact reporter Sara Crawford at (330) 721-4063 or scrawford@medina-gazette.com.